Exponent in 2018

As we wind down 2017 and move into 2018, Exponent version 2.4.2 is being polished for release. What does the future of Exponent CMS hold in store? If you've read recent posts (here and here), you'll get a feel for what you can expect in the next version. So how can you prepare for the next version of Exponent?

Ensure your web server is running at least PHP version 5.5 (though v7.x is highly recommended for speed) since the next version of Exponent will NOT run/upgrade on older versions of PHP since they are so obsolete. Therefore, if your web server is ancient and running a long-ago version of PHP, do NOT attempt to update/upgrade your site since it will come to a screeching halt!

Decide if you still want to support obsolete browsers. We will still include the 'shims' used to support very old browsers, but that feature must be turned on, but you'll have that opportunity during the upgrade process. An additional factor is that we've moved to jQuery v3. If you still need support for older versions of jQuery, you'll also want to turn on the obsolete browser support.

And though Bootstrap v4 and FontAwesome v5 won't be fully integrated, nor included with the next release (since Bootstrap v4 hasn't been release yet itself), we have most of the underpinnings in place. Nonetheless, we'll have a special Christmas gift of a 'preview addon' which will give you a feel for what a Bootstrap v4 theme will look like. This MAY give you a head start into designing or converting some existing themes.

As a note for which supported theme frameworks align with which library versions:

Bootstrap v2 is tied to FontAwesome v3 and autoloads Normalize.css v7

Bootstrap v3 is tied to FontAwesome v4 and Normalize.css v3.0.3 is integrated into Bootstrap v3

Bootstrap v4 will be tied to FontAwesome v5 and an enhanced variation of Normalize.css (Reboot) in integrated into Bootstrap v4 (all this is based on Bootstrap v4 stable not greatly changing from its beta2 release)

We wish you a Blessed 2018 and still strive to keep your Exponent web site in the modern age.